The President of the Republic, Giorgio Napolitano, who in the evening appointed Mario Monti (President of Bocconi) as a Senator for life, is trying to reassure the markets, which attacked our country in force today. “Faced with the pressure of the financial markets on Italian public debt securities – reads a note from the Quirinale – which has today reached alarming levels, in my capacity as Head of State I would like to clarify the following, in order to dispel any misunderstanding or misunderstanding:
1) there is no uncertainty about the choice of the President of the Council on. Silvio Berlusconi to resign of the government he presided over. This decision will become effective with the approval in Parliament of the stability law for 2012;
2) on the basis of agreements between the Presidents of the Senate and of the Chamber and the parliamentary groups of both the majority and the opposition, the law will be approved within a few days;
3) will then take place immediately and consultations as quickly as possible by the President of the Republic to solve the government crisis following the resignation of the Hon. Berlusconi;
4) therefore, within a short time or a new government will be formed that he can take any further necessary decision with the confidence of Parliament or Parliament will dissolve to immediately start an electoral campaign to be carried out within the most limited time.
I am therefore entirely unfounded fears that a prolonged period of government inactivity could occur in Italy and parliamentary, it being in any case possible at any time to adopt, if necessary, emergency measures".
DECIDE IMMEDIATELY TO SAVE YOURSELF
“New behaviors are required in the institutions and by the political forces. We need decisions soon and gradually over the next few years, which give a sense of renewed responsibility and national cohesion". The message launched by the President of the Republic is clear: time is up, the country needs to respond immediately to the government crisis, to then tackle the economic-financial issue.
Not even 24 hours after the announcement of Silvio Berlusconi, who last night promised to resign immediately after the approval of the stability bill, Italy is back in the eye of the storm. The speculative attack against our public debt has never been as violent as today: the spread has reached 575, while yields on ten-year BTPs have reached 7,3%. Meanwhile, Piazza Affari collapsed by more than 3%.
According to the Head of State, "to get us out of the critical and alarming condition we find ourselves in, too many closures and old taboos need to fall, a climate of more open and objective confrontation be created, anchored to the real problems of society and the State and to the their possible solutions. We must "regain credibility and trust as a country, so as to emerge today first of all from a very dangerous squeeze on our public debt securities in the financial markets and on the conditions of our credit institutions, with predictable repercussions on economic activity and employment ”.
DDL STABILITY IN THE SENATE TODAY, TIME-SCREW
To this end, the President this morning received Minister Tremonti and Undersecretary Gianni Letta, who illustrated the Government's amendments to the stability bill. On the measure - which arrives today in the Senate at 16 pm - in the meantime, the pressure of the opposition continues. “We formally offer the availability – said Pd Dario Franceschini – to ensure that the Stability law gets the go-ahead within this week”, indeed “by Monday”. The leader of the Democrats, Pier Luigi Bersani, underlined how "times are dramatically shortening, we are ready for any solution that allows for serious acceleration". Even the presidents of the two chambers, Fini and Schifani, assured that "the maxi-amendment must be approved within this week, next week at the latest".
BERLUSCONI: “ELECTION IN FEBRUARY. ALFANO CANDIDATE"
On the political front, the words spoken today by Napolitano have relaunched the hypothesis of the technical government, slightly easing the tension on our bond market. Shortly before, it was once again Berlusconi who ruled out this path: "Since there are no other possible majorities - said the Knight, fueling the uncertainty of the markets during the morning -, I can only see the elections at the beginning of February". The Premier had also confirmed that the centre-right candidate will almost certainly be the current secretary of the PDL, Angelino Alfano, who "is accepted by everyone and it would be wrong to burn him now trying to imagine a new government led by him". However, Berlusconi also sees the primaries in the future, without excluding his possible return to the field: "I will do what my party asks me to do in the interest of the country."
MARCEGAGLIA: “ITALY IN THE CHURCH. WHAT HAS BEEN DONE IS NOT ENOUGH”
In the meantime, the Cavaliere is forced to accept the umpteenth reprimand from Emma Marcegaglia: “Despite some decisions taken yesterday by the government and by the prime minister – said the president of Confindustria – in these hours we are experiencing a dramatic moment. Today we are in the abyss. We don't deserve to end up like Greece. We have been asking for reforms for years: it is clear that what has been done up to now has not been deemed either credible or sufficient. The country needs more."
THE ECB CONTINUES TO BUY BTPs, INSPECTORS ALREADY AT WORK
But Italy's nightmare also haunts Europe's dreams. In these hours the ECB is trying to put a stop to the race of the BTPs by buying our government bonds with both hands on the secondary market. Olli Rehn, the European Commissioner for Economic and Monetary Affairs, described the Italian situation as "dramatic", recalling that EU and ECB technicians are already in Rome to monitor the situation.
